The MacCallum House & Green Weddings in Mendocino

I attended a dear friend’s destination wedding in the lovely town of Mendocino. The majority of the events took place at the amazing MacCallum House. The town of Mendocino paired with the venue of the MacCallum House is a lovely option for a green destination wedding in Northern California. The hotel restaurant and bar specializes (and damn near perfects) organic and local cuisine and culinary cocktails. The dill and other spices in my Bloody Mary the morning after nearly sent me over the edge.

A large, Raj-style tent was erected in their front lawn and the décor the hotel spearheaded was elegant and simple with draped paneling, hanging chandeliers offering both incandescent and candlelit dinning. The hotel let us dance and celebrate into the night only shutting us down at the same time as their bar, at 2am – a rarity for most hotel destinations that usually close events down by midnight.

For guests who did not stay at the MacCallum House, there were many options within walking distance at all price points from 2 to 4 star accommodations. Camping was also available for the more adventurous guest.

The location offered carpooling and wine tasting options to and from Mendocino through one of my favorite regions – The Anderson Valley. Shuttle/Wine train service was also available from San Francisco (or other metropolitan areas) to Mendocino with stops at wineries, cheese shops and farms along the way.

Raffle-4-Riders

Raffle-4-Riders is a Twirl Management created program that acts as a rewards system for event attendees who ride their bikes or public transportation to your festival, conference, trade show, etc. Showing the ticket stub or the bike claim ticket from Bike Valet and an honor code for walkers at the Raffle-4-Riders, attendees are eligible for a raffle with prizes from various local businesses and restaurants.

We rolled out the concept at Spirit of Japantown 2008 in San Jose California with great results. Despite the heavy downpour that day, our marketing to take alternative transportation was rewarded by over 200 visitors to the booth for the duration of the one day festival. Our prizes included gift certificates from Jamba Juice, Sports Basement, Bicycle Express, Naglee Park Garage, and Farm Fresh to You.

For this roll out or goal was to partner with the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition but due to late procurement of sponsorship this did not happen but is slated for this years festival on September 26th, 2009. It is a great program to work in conjunction with a bike valet partner and a transportation sponsorship. This rewards alternative transportation to your event and an opportunity to incorporate a different variety of sponsorship and donations.

Bi-Rite Street Fair

Example of a green street fair...

This last weekend I was pulled out of the office by a friend to enjoy the day and check out the Bi-Rite Market Street Fair. It was one of those 80 degree, no fog Early-September San Francisco days that was torturous to be inside at the computer.

Sweet organic corn, Niman Ranch Pork and bean salads, Bi-Rite ice cream with chocolate syrup, watermelon drinks, and hot dogs were a few of the treats being sold at this foodie schmorgusborg. For show they were roasting a pig in the middle of the street, which was apparently going to be turned into sandwiches and sold the next day.



Bi-Rite is the epicenter of fine, local and organic foods in San Francisco. They have their Bi-Rite Creamery just down the street with flavors such as Salted Caramel and Balsamic Strawberry. The Bi-Rite Market is packed to the gills with organic delicacies perfect to spice up your own dinner party, bring as a gift or pack as a picnic in Delores Park. Did you know they have a catering service?

So it was only natural that their waste management sorting system was worthy of any green event. They offered trash, recycling and compost with clear and direct signage of what goes in which bin. For example the cups were all recyclable while the rest of the serving ware was compostable. The waste bins noted specifically that. I can only guess that the choice to do recyclable cups was a cost and recyclability issue that is important to examine when procuring disposables for your event – What goes in must go out so be sure to look at where it will end up…

After devouring a large lunch meal and many small sides I rolled myself back into my office – fat and happy to be filled with well prepared and grown food.

Slow Food Nation

Slow Food Nation

I volunteered a few hours of manual labor to help plant the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden in the San Francisco Civic Center. There has been a million and one great articles written about the project such as this New York Times article.

If you would like to get involved there is still a need for volunteers:
Email shireen@slowfoodnation.org to find out how you can help distribute information in San Francisco and in your neighborhood.

Also, don’t forget about Slow Food Nation 2008 from August 29th to September 1. Our favorite San Francisco hotel the Carlton, is one of the participating venues and hotels. They are a certified Green Business and are a carbon neutral hotel – that’s something to really make you sleep well.

Twirl of Clementine

This summer has been flying by. But as a San Francisco resident, I am looking forward to the sunnier days of Fall just around the corner.

At Twirl we are working on a lot of projects that are more “promote green event planning” than directly for clients. Our newest project is a co-conspiring with Clementine Events in Sonoma County. We are going to be hosting Eco-Parties for professionals in the event planning industry, breaking down the process of going green, highlighting some fabulous vendors and locations that can help keep your event cutting edge and elegant, while illustrating that going green doesn’t mean going brown.

So the concept is this:

1 Green Venue
1 Green Food
1 Green Beverage
1 Green Product
1 Green lesson

This equals a fabulous party and an opportunity to meet that sustainable caviar farmer that is only a few counties away while sipping on a solar powered California sparkling.

The idea came out of meeting and working with vendors who wanted to offer their eco-friendly products to event planners (understanding their massive purchasing power). Instead of setting up individual meetings, we figured that it would be much more fun to show by doing and experiencing.

We will be launching the website soon and announcing dates. Come hop with us around the Bay Area as we take you to venues you may not have expected to be green or even a venue.

Zone Verde

Zone Verde at Carnaval San Francisco

Being promoted as San Francisco's largest outdoor green event, the Zone Verde, part of this year's 30th annual Carnaval Festival, is converting one city block into an eco-friendly space filled with performances, information about local sustainable resources and food, music and drink.

One of the key elements to creating the space was to ensure the Latino culture being celebrated was incorporated into the information and the green message being promoted. Douglas Kolberg, the Zone Verde coordinator, brought his years of experience in green event production and cultural events in San Francisco together to create a Green Zone that would best serve the Mission District community. The majority of information and performances will be in English and Spanish, including a bi-lingual yoga class directed by Yoga Tree. Kolberg, who wears proudly a t-shirt that says, "Green is not necessarily White," was passionate about bringing information and entertainment to celebrate San Francisco's urban environment in away that translated to the city's Latino community.

To help orchestrate the production needed to minimize waste and create a green festival, Kolberg is working with eco-event pros such as Green Mary, Green Festivals, Nature in the City, SF Department of the Environment and Clean City. To create an "interactive and educational space" non-profits such as the Sustainable Living Roadshow and Poder have signed up. "I wanted to approach this from a Fair Trade and International aspect for the booths and event participants," commented Kolberg. San Francisco, as a city, is getting a routine in place to support green events through it's municipal organizations and experienced festival producers - come down to Carnaval's Zone Verde to see the machine in action on Harrison and Treat Streets at 17th Street.

Looking to get hands-on experience working on a green festival? Douglas and the festival organizers are still in need of great volunteers. Call 415-875-9224 to sign up.

Taste 2008!

On April 17, 2008 Root Division held their annual Taste fundraising event with the support of their resident artists, local restaurants, beverage companies and Twirl to raise money for their education programs. The art gallery was packed with art lovers, fashionistas and foodies all tasting samples of Andalu, Bar Bambino, Brick, Cantina Lounge, Cook Club, El Buen Comer & La Cocina, Maverick, Ozumo and Zazil while imbibing drinks from Trumer Pils, Lotus Vodka, Ritual Coffee Roasters, and Grown Up Soda. How's that for a mouthful!

The environmental considerations woven into the event were:
• Artist designed re-usable bags for the gift bag
• Only local restaurants participated, most with sustainable food purchasing programs
• Trumer Pils and Lotus Vodka are both manufactured in the Bay Area
• Re-usable glassware was used for beverages
• Recycling and composting were available on site (with instructions and signage)
• Invitations were printed on recycled paper
• All the disposable serving ware and napkins were either paper or compostable
• Each food prep station was given individual compost bins to raise our waste diversion ration and make it easy for our chefs to compost on-site.

With all of our green initiatives for the event met we wound up with only 2 bags (about 8-10lbs) of landfill waste from the 300+ person event. Next year we'll get down to less than 1!!!

Home Sweet Home

After completing our first holiday season as Twirl, we decided it was time to change things up a little and move office space. We are now located at 18th and Treat Streets in the Mission District of San Francisco, at a new building run by ActivSpace. This past January has been filled with designing the layout of out new office, building shelves, painting walls, and moving into our new space.

Though not a party or a meeting, this was quite the event for us and we set a goal to follow good environmental practices at each step of the move. We thought that it would be a good idea to chronicle some of our work here!

First we found a perfect fit at ActivSpace which utilized many green building practices, as most of their properties do. Though not LEED designated, the building is the equivalent to a LEED Silver level. We, of course, chose an office right in the center of the quad, smack in the middle of the action like the party people we are.

For décor and furnishings we went to Eco-Home Improvement to pick up Nolo and American Pride paints. We of course re-used our existing furniture, and we supplemented these with used items including shelves, side tables, chairs, and serving ware purchased from sources like Craig’s List, Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Cookin’ (a wonderful little store crammed with used specialty kitchen items). We bought power strips so that we can turn off all of our appliances when we go home for the evening. The new items we acquired were an Energy Star mini-Fridge (where else would you store the champagne?) and beautifully crafted trays made from acacia wood.

We are so happy with our new home away from home. Let us know if you would like to come by for a cup of tea!

Cheers!